Speaker 1: It's night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Wbzy Coostin's me Radio.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Al Griffith. As we head into
Speaker 2: the ten o'clock hour tonight, I am delighted to be
Speaker 2: joined by a veteran, and I use that word very respectfully,
Speaker 2: a veteran of the radio business. He has done it all,
Speaker 2: he's seen it all. Bruce Mittman. Bruce, welcome to night Side.
Speaker 2: You're the general partner in the CEO of Community Broadcasters
Speaker 2: and we want to talk about AM radio. I want
Speaker 2: to talk about radio generally, but particularly AM radio. How
Speaker 2: did you get started in this career of viewers that
Speaker 2: has now lasted at least four decades.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, thanks for having me on, and
Speaker 3: I appreciate the intro.
Speaker 2: Well, the inflo is the intro is only factual, that's all.
Speaker 2: I stand in awe of everything that you've done. I've
Speaker 2: been involved in the business a little bit, but ever
Speaker 2: on the ownership side, never on the agency side, and
Speaker 2: those are two of the most important sides of this business.
Speaker 2: I've always been simply on the employee side. Go right ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, so I started well, I started in advertising at Arnold,
Speaker 3: a company and worked there in numerous years and had
Speaker 3: an account called WRKO Radio and they were making a
Speaker 3: switch from music to talk. This was back in the
Speaker 3: early eighties and they started going into a talk format.
Speaker 3: Bob Fish, who was a general manager at the time,
Speaker 3: brought me into his office and made me a deal
Speaker 3: I couldn't turned down. And I became general sales manager
Speaker 3: and was in radio, and so I started on the
Speaker 3: AM band. I started in talk and loved it, and
Speaker 3: now I'm doing both, certainly Community Broadcasters which with thirty
Speaker 3: four stations and five markets, and Mitcom, which is one
Speaker 3: of Boston's twenty five largest agencies in the advertising side.
Speaker 2: So the ownership of stations. Okay, I've only worked at WBZ,
Speaker 2: But people don't realize how many radio stations there are
Speaker 2: around this country, of various types and various sizes. Give
Speaker 2: us a little little perspective, give us the view from
Speaker 2: thirty thousand feet of just the number of people and
Speaker 2: the number of places where radio stations are found of
Speaker 2: this country.
Speaker 3: Well, I think, what FM, there are fifteen thousand stations
Speaker 3: around the country. Wow, and AM probably about ten or
Speaker 3: twelve thousand, So.
Speaker 2: We're talking in total over twenty five thousand radio st.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. I think that's accurate. It's up there.
Speaker 3: Let's put it this way. There's thousands, and you know
Speaker 3: they're owned in major markets predominantly by consolidators like your
Speaker 3: own company, iHeart, and then you know Odyssey and Cumulus,
Speaker 3: and then smaller secondary markets, which is where I've owned
Speaker 3: my properties a lot of independence.
Speaker 2: How tough is is to own a radio station and
Speaker 2: be successful in a radio station in a smaller market,
Speaker 2: and you know, you can pick one of yours without
Speaker 2: identifying it. But give me an example of Oh, I
Speaker 2: don't know in terms of the market that you might
Speaker 2: have a radio station in one hundred thousand people, fifty
Speaker 2: thousand people. There's a rural areas in this country. Really,
Speaker 2: the signal of the radio station does not have the
Speaker 2: same strength as say a WBZ.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, BZ is obviously one of the uh certainly
Speaker 3: largest uh you know ams in the country. It's part
Speaker 3: of the clear channel network of ams, not clear channel media,
Speaker 3: but clear channel stations.
Speaker 2: Explain to explain to the audience what that means. I
Speaker 2: know what it means. Most stations have the signal is
Speaker 2: directional north south east, west, northeast southwest whatever.
Speaker 3: Clear cha AM you know as is uh, it's the
Speaker 3: signal rises to the ionosphere and stops there and then
Speaker 3: spreads out. So nighttime, most AM signals are are controlled,
Speaker 3: meaning that they have to end at a certain place
Speaker 3: because they'll interfere with other signals from other markets because
Speaker 3: the signal tends to skip off the atmosphere. FM is
Speaker 3: line of sight, meaning it radiates out from the height
Speaker 3: of the tower until power dissipates. So it's a fifty
Speaker 3: thousand WAT signal probably a sixty mile radius around the tower.
Speaker 3: If it's a one hundred thousand, probably more like about
Speaker 3: a seventy five mile radius, So very different signals. Yours
Speaker 3: being a clear channel property is part of the defense
Speaker 3: system in the United States, where a number of stations
Speaker 3: on the amband don't have any other signals at night
Speaker 3: on their channel, so that in case of a nuclear
Speaker 3: war or disaster, people can pick your radio station up
Speaker 3: throughout the Northeast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we have some two some signals in
Speaker 2: some parts of the country far away on the other
Speaker 2: side of the Mississippi River, smaller stations. I'm not even
Speaker 2: sure if they were on twenty four hours as either,
Speaker 2: but I think there's.
Speaker 3: One there are daytimers on your signal, or they're very
Speaker 3: low power nighttime one hundred watts do you want to watts?
Speaker 3: So they're not going to interfere with your signal, which
Speaker 3: is a clear channel signal, which is grandfather. There's a
Speaker 3: number of them around the country.
Speaker 2: So before we come back to that, I do want
Speaker 2: to come back to pick how does a radio station,
Speaker 2: A smaller radio station that somewhat limited in terms of
Speaker 2: its wattage and its power, those radio stations survive and
Speaker 2: they serve a really important purpose in their community. The
Speaker 2: advertisers on those stations are often local advertisers. Just explained,
Speaker 2: I mean, to people who have never lived in a
Speaker 2: small market America, how important that radio station is, one
Speaker 2: of those twenty five thousand radio stations is to that community.
Speaker 2: The local newspapers are now going away, So the newspapers
Speaker 2: are almost gone. You've got to keep the radio stations.
Speaker 3: Well. You know, small market radio is a lot of
Speaker 3: fun because you tend to be the medium that drives
Speaker 3: the community, and your signals can be just as big
Speaker 3: as any major market. We have fifty hundred thousand and
Speaker 3: one fms. The difference is is that you know the
Speaker 3: market tends to be not as city centric but more
Speaker 3: county centric. So you might have two hundred and fifty
Speaker 3: thousand people within your listing area, but they're not living
Speaker 3: in a city a centralized place. They're living in hubs.
Speaker 3: So you have to service lots of different hubs. And
Speaker 3: you know, the way you compete effectively is you become
Speaker 3: the voice of the community. So, for example, in Florence,
Speaker 3: South Carolina, where I own property, I have a morning
Speaker 3: news talk news talk network that goes over three markets
Speaker 3: and we are pretty much the voice of that community.
Speaker 3: I have a very former lieutenant governors, our morning personality,
Speaker 3: and we have a sidekick. We have news segments, we
Speaker 3: have producers. Like any major market station, it's just that
Speaker 3: we're delivering regional, local, and national conversation to the rural communities.
Speaker 3: So you're still fulfilling the same function, it's just in
Speaker 3: a different way with different personalities.
Speaker 2: And what's the on air hours on a lot of
Speaker 2: these stations. I'm sure this fluctuate. You may have some
Speaker 2: stations at are twenty four hour stations, but a lot
Speaker 2: of them can be watch five am in the morning
Speaker 2: until seven o'clock at night.
Speaker 3: Well, no, most of it. Most of our properties are
Speaker 3: full time, really thirty four properties, twenty four to seven
Speaker 3: ams are twenty four to seven FMS or twenty four
Speaker 3: to seven. We have a lot of personalities, local personalities,
Speaker 3: and then we augment that with indicated shows. It's no
Speaker 3: different than you would say our KO which with runs
Speaker 3: or your station which might run some syndicated shows and
Speaker 3: or syndicated personalities or voices or so you try to
Speaker 3: image it the same way and hopefully produce it as
Speaker 3: qualitatively as a BZ is produced.
Speaker 2: So that as a matter of fact, I don't think
Speaker 2: at this point, to the best of my knowledge, that
Speaker 2: BZ has any syndicated shows. I do know they have
Speaker 2: some shows on.
Speaker 3: Weekends, weekends, I was thinking, yeah, certainly not Monday through
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, not Monday through Friday, say to midnight. You're
Speaker 3: you're all live and local. So I apologize if that
Speaker 3: was no.
Speaker 2: No, no, no no, I just want to make sure
Speaker 2: that that's perfect.
Speaker 3: I don't want to send any of your listeners away,
Speaker 3: So let me let.
Speaker 2: Me take a quick break. My guest is Bruce Mittman. Bruce,
Speaker 2: longtime radio guy, owner, sales guy. Do you ever do
Speaker 2: any on air stuff Bruce along the way. Other than interviews, well,
Speaker 2: you know, I was on.
Speaker 3: A competitive station every Monday talking talking media.
Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough, you don't have to we don't have
Speaker 2: to publicize that. But you've never had your own show,
Speaker 2: per se, right, no ahad Okay, that's fine, that's fine.
Speaker 2: It's part of the it's part of the process, just
Speaker 2: like you when you I always analogize everything to professional sports.
Speaker 2: There are there are people who are coaches, people who
Speaker 2: are players, managers and different positions, and it's the same
Speaker 2: principle everybody. We're going to come back and I want
Speaker 2: to talk about the importance the importance of radio, and
Speaker 2: I also want to invite people to give us a
Speaker 2: call six one, seven, two, five, four ten thirty six
Speaker 2: one seven, nine three one ten thirty. If you have
Speaker 2: any question about radio in any way, shape or form,
Speaker 2: this is the guy to ask that question of Back
Speaker 2: on Nightside, feel free to bring your conversation to us.
Speaker 2: This Friday night, we're going to head towards the twentieth
Speaker 2: hour at eleven o'clock and we're going to do our
Speaker 2: annual Mother's Day tribute back on Nightside right after this,
Speaker 2: It's Night Side with.
Speaker 1: Dan Ray, Hey, DANBZ Boston's News Radio. You're on Night
Speaker 1: Side with Dan Ray on WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: Joined this hour by Bruce Mittman. He's the general partner
Speaker 2: and CEO of Community Broadcasters. He is his ownership of
Speaker 2: about thirty four radio station around the country, primarily in
Speaker 2: New York State and in South Carolina, which is a
Speaker 2: full time job and of itself, and he also runs
Speaker 2: an advertising agency, so he knows this business from a
Speaker 2: different perspective that I know the business. He's been in
Speaker 2: it a long time as well. And if you have
Speaker 2: any questions about the radio business, feel free let me
Speaker 2: ask you this. What is the health of the radio
Speaker 2: business right now? Obviously, the economy goes up and down,
Speaker 2: and we now have fortunately or unfortunately digital and podcasting
Speaker 2: and of course the Internet. There are a lot of
Speaker 2: other ways people can get their information than what people
Speaker 2: would get their information from radio, television and newspapers. It's
Speaker 2: had a tremendous impact on newspapers. What's the condition of
Speaker 2: radio generally at this point.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, radio took a bit of a hit
Speaker 3: when COVID came and part of the reason is because
Speaker 3: the majority of radio listening is in the car. So
Speaker 3: when commuting stopped, obviously listening slowed down, and you know
Speaker 3: qume meaning a number of different people, listening was reduced,
Speaker 3: and time spent was reduced. Well. As people started to
Speaker 3: come back to work, radio listening has improved, time spent
Speaker 3: has improved, and reach has improved. I frankly, you know
Speaker 3: it's interesting, you know, because I also own midcom and
Speaker 3: so we spend millions of dollars in media, and you know,
Speaker 3: more and more clients are getting more comfortable again with
Speaker 3: radio as part of the media strategy for some of
Speaker 3: the branding or sales efforts. And you know, Boston's got
Speaker 3: some great radio stations, great personalities, yourself included in that mix,
Speaker 3: and then people believe in what you say and they
Speaker 3: have an affinity for that radio station. And so the
Speaker 3: radio still has a very strong position in the marketplace.
Speaker 3: I think that part of the challenge radio has is
Speaker 3: its sales teams have to it out and sell it more.
Speaker 3: They seem they seem to have relied on years of
Speaker 3: not having to sell it as strongly because now people
Speaker 3: didn't have as many options. But now with digital and
Speaker 3: social and other media strategies, you've got to go out
Speaker 3: and show people why radio is still viable in a
Speaker 3: great reach and targeting media.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the pie remains kind of the same. It's just
Speaker 2: that there are more slices in the pie, which is really,
Speaker 2: I think, very very, very frustrating.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know, if you think about it, radio
Speaker 3: has got streaming. I mean you're streaming, your show is
Speaker 3: on a podcast, you have your show itself, you have
Speaker 3: promos on your show, you have social media connected with
Speaker 3: your show, and you have some digital support for the show.
Speaker 3: So you're in as many places as any other medium.
Speaker 3: The miss A lot of the radio salespeople haven't really
Speaker 3: sold that effectively. I believe haven't demonstrated to advertises how
Speaker 3: many different places they can be with one media buy.
Speaker 3: And I think radio still is a very viable option.
Speaker 3: And I can tell you we're very effective in small markets.
Speaker 3: We're still i think even more effective because we are
Speaker 3: such a strong medium for that region.
Speaker 2: Very interesting, and again you put it in perspective that
Speaker 2: people will understand that if folks want to join the
Speaker 2: conversation and throw their ideas that we just got a
Speaker 2: couple of minutes left here before the break. I want
Speaker 2: to get to an area that I think is important
Speaker 2: and many people aware of it. A lot of people
Speaker 2: aren't aware of it. And what I'm talking about is
Speaker 2: there's an effort in Congress to make sure that AM
Speaker 2: radio remains in newly manufactured automobile.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: Can you explain to my audience, Uh, why this is
Speaker 2: even a problem. I kind of imagine. Now again, I'm
Speaker 2: someone who's a radio guy. Obviously, I kind of imagine
Speaker 2: having a car without radio.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I agree. You know, a lot of those,
Speaker 3: a lot of these dashboard there's there's been a battle
Speaker 3: for the dashboard in the last five years, you know,
Speaker 3: uh uh, streaming companies, digital companies, UH, podcasts, UH, audio companies,
Speaker 3: satellite radio. Everybody's you know, looking for prominence in the dashboard,
Speaker 3: and so AM has sort of lost some of the
Speaker 3: luster it's had. Saying that AM fits and fills a
Speaker 3: very important void in the marketplace because it provides a
Speaker 3: lot of content for ethnic programming UH Asian speaking programming,
Speaker 3: Hispanic and Spanish speaking program Portuguese, uh, other forms of
Speaker 3: formats on the AM that you won't hear on an FM.
Speaker 3: So AM is still a really critical part of the landscape.
Speaker 3: There's it's really a cost factor. You just have to
Speaker 3: add another chip, and I think the manufacturers just don't
Speaker 3: want to add that chip. I'm not sure how it
Speaker 3: interfaces with EV cars, because that seems to be the
Speaker 3: biggest complaint. But you know, saying that, I still think
Speaker 3: AM is very viable, very important, and I know the NAB,
Speaker 3: which represents radio and broadcasters, has been a lobby in Congress,
Speaker 3: and there's a bill going through Congress shortly that Frankly,
Speaker 3: seven Marque has been a very big proponent of to
Speaker 3: make sure that A is always in cars, on the
Speaker 3: radio and available.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I want my AM radio, I want
Speaker 2: my FM radio. There are other options. I want more options,
Speaker 2: not fewer options. And what I don't need in my
Speaker 2: car is the equivalent of what I have on my
Speaker 2: television at home. I have like literally almost five hundred
Speaker 2: channels that you buy on television and you use.
Speaker 3: Probably the only local medium. I mean, if you really
Speaker 3: think about it, all these other options, they're not talking
Speaker 3: to the marketplace. They're not in the marketplace. They're not
Speaker 3: reflecting on activities that are going in the marketplace. News
Speaker 3: that's in the marketplace, traffic, weather, sports, information, interactivity, conversation,
Speaker 3: it's still vibrant, very critical, and a lot of this
Speaker 3: is on the A band and eliminating that eliminates a
Speaker 3: lot of access. You know, a lot of people feel
Speaker 3: that the Democrats want to get rid of AM because
Speaker 3: there's so much conservative talk on the A M band.
Speaker 3: You know, that's that's a debatable point, but it's certainly
Speaker 3: one that that is discussed often.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've heard that, but I mean that swings back
Speaker 2: and forth. That's like like anything else, there will come
Speaker 2: a day when maybe so called liberal talk will be
Speaker 2: more more dominant. But I just think again, it's it's
Speaker 2: it's it's it's it's a it's a frightening idea, my guess,
Speaker 2: Bruce bit Mittman, and we are talking about radio, and
Speaker 2: by the way, that piece of legislation, if that would
Speaker 2: which would basically say to cars that we look at
Speaker 2: radio similarly to a lot of other features of a car.
Speaker 2: You want want to have a review mirror, you want
Speaker 2: to have side mirrors, you want to have good breaks,
Speaker 2: don't you know, if you're going to produce a car,
Speaker 2: produce a car which provides everything that a driver needs.
Speaker 2: And as you mentioned when you're talking about you know,
Speaker 2: things like what we have, traffic on the threes or
Speaker 2: weather forecast. Those are all very important to be available
Speaker 2: inside a car, particularly if you're driving away from home.
Speaker 2: That passed Congress, and I think it died in the Senate.
Speaker 2: If I'm not mistaken. It just never got to a
Speaker 2: vote in the Senate. A.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's supposed to be brought up again. I know
Speaker 3: it keeps going. I don't think it's gotten out of
Speaker 3: committee in Congress yet. I think that's been the challenge.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what happens is once it dies, there's a new
Speaker 2: session and it has to start all over again. But
Speaker 2: back a year ago it could be impacted. You had
Speaker 2: a Republican House and a Democratic Senator. And my suspicion
Speaker 2: is that the Democrats who were running the Senate didn't
Speaker 2: want to bring it up, even though Eddie Markey has
Speaker 2: done a good job on it as a leading Democrat.
Speaker 3: I think he's been demponent of radio and broadcasting, you know, deregulation.
Speaker 3: He was really the key driver of deregulation back in
Speaker 3: the eighties and nineties. Finally when consolidation started to become
Speaker 3: part of the landscape.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but as they say, I think now that the
Speaker 2: Republicans have both houses. The ball is in their court
Speaker 2: and they need to make sure this gets done during
Speaker 2: this session.
Speaker 3: I agree. We have Michael Klarr, the FCC Commissioner, is
Speaker 3: a very big supporter of AM as well as the
Speaker 3: ability for people smaller markets to buy and own more properties.
Speaker 3: So they're very open to change in the industry and
Speaker 3: hopefully they'll take this on.
Speaker 2: Let us hope. So we got to take a quick
Speaker 2: break for news. I do have a couple of lines
Speaker 2: still open. We have callers. We're going to get to
Speaker 2: the callers. I promise all of you stay right there.
Speaker 2: We have one line at six one seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four to ten thirty and one line at six one seven,
Speaker 2: nine three one ten thirty. Your questions about radio Those
Speaker 2: of you who are listening tonight obviously are radio files.
Speaker 2: People who like this concept of news and or talk.
Speaker 2: Whether it's political talk, whether it's general talk, whether it's
Speaker 2: sports talk. There's a whole variety of information that is available,
Speaker 2: and you want to make sure it remains available. That's
Speaker 2: why we're doing this hour with Bruce Mittman, and we'll
Speaker 2: be back right after the news break here on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan ray On WBZ with Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's get to the phones, my guest, Bruce Mittman. Bruce
Speaker 2: is the general partner and CEO of Community Broadcasters. He
Speaker 2: has been in this business for forty years as the
Speaker 2: owner of an advertising agency, has been involved in management
Speaker 2: and ownership. Owns about thirty four radio stations around the country,
Speaker 2: focused in South Carolina and New York. Has owned stations
Speaker 2: in other states, including Florida. So let's let's just get
Speaker 2: to phone calls and see what people have to say.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 2: We have full lines, Bruce, which is which is great.
Speaker 2: I know my audience is interested in radio, So let
Speaker 2: me start it off with Jolene from Beverly. Joleene, you
Speaker 2: are first is out with Bruce Mittman. Go right ahead, Jolene.
Speaker 5: Hi Dan, and Hi to Bruce, your guest. And I
Speaker 5: am an am radio lover. I don't know what I'd
Speaker 5: do without it. I'm in my pitchen all evening and
Speaker 5: listen to the radio, probably starting around seven thirty or
Speaker 5: eight and listening right through one a m. And I
Speaker 5: have a question about saturation advertising. My husband and I
Speaker 5: we have to laugh every time we hear a certain commercial,
Speaker 5: and I won't say which one it is.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much for that, Jolie, because it might
Speaker 2: be one of mine.
Speaker 5: Go ahead, Yeah, but I'm doing I sometimes depends on
Speaker 5: the mood I'm in, But as soon as that comes on,
Speaker 5: my mood definitely goes down. And sometimes I get so
Speaker 5: mad I just want to throw the radio if I
Speaker 5: hear oh no, no no? Does them.
Speaker 6: Harm? I believe? And why do they do that?
Speaker 5: Who who determines how many times they're going to play that?
Speaker 5: Does the sponsor or the program director?
Speaker 2: How do Bruce has the answer for you? Are you
Speaker 2: going to do? Is listen? Bruce going to give the
Speaker 2: answer right between the go ahead, prove well.
Speaker 3: First of all, thank you for listening to radio. Because
Speaker 3: it's listeners like you that keep us in business. We
Speaker 3: appreciate it. So advertisers determine the number of spots unless
Speaker 3: it gets to a point that it's so aggravating that
Speaker 3: a program director as station might step in and say, hey,
Speaker 3: we're gonna limit you to X amount of spots an hour. Now,
Speaker 3: the reason you do a lot of frequency is because
Speaker 3: it moves the needle. It impacts the listener and they
Speaker 3: actually react when they hear it more often. So advertisers
Speaker 3: tend to buy a lot of frequency. The key though,
Speaker 3: is not running the same spot, is running multiple spots.
Speaker 3: If you're going to have a lot of frequency, so
Speaker 3: you have different messages so you don't bore the listener,
Speaker 3: and you also give the listener a lot more information
Speaker 3: so that they can be more educated to consumers and
Speaker 3: relate a little bit more to the commercials. But I
Speaker 3: know what you mean. Sometimes it gets obnoxious, Jolie.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people understand what you're saying.
Speaker 2: But remember this, Without advertising, we go dark exactly.
Speaker 5: So that's that's an important harming them. But I supposed
Speaker 5: to say, uh, focus on people who just tune in
Speaker 5: and out randomly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. If you're listening, if you're as loyal
Speaker 2: to listen as you suggested, you're gonna you're gonna hear
Speaker 2: them all, that's for sure. Hey, Jolie, thanks so much
Speaker 2: for calling. I'm glad you're at That was a great
Speaker 2: question to ask. Thank you so much.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Have a great night and enjoy the weekend and stay
Speaker 2: dry for hoever long. If his reign is gonna last
Speaker 2: let's keep rolling here. We're gonna go next to Gene
Speaker 2: from Ever Gene, You're next to Night Side. You're on,
Speaker 2: Bruce Mittman, Goretta.
Speaker 4: Edd Jene, Hi, Jane, Hi, Bruce, thank you for being on.
Speaker 4: So I love it Am Radio.
Speaker 6: Jan.
Speaker 4: I love your show and listen all the time. It's
Speaker 4: great and very informative and.
Speaker 2: Hopefully too hopefully entw dating too. What's your what's your
Speaker 2: question for Bruce? Go ahead?
Speaker 4: So I also listened in the morning. I need to
Speaker 4: catch the weather. I'm a caretaker for several elderly family
Speaker 4: members and I'm always running, run and running. Okay, I
Speaker 4: need to know what the weather is. I need to
Speaker 4: know what the traffic is. I listen for all that
Speaker 4: and yeah, and what's good also is that I can
Speaker 4: listen to the radio while I'm doing my laundry, while
Speaker 4: I'm house cleaning, while I'm in my car. I can
Speaker 4: catch it everywhere. Sure, you know, so that's great. I
Speaker 4: can't sit here in front of a TV very long.
Speaker 4: I don't watch it as much. I don't have time.
Speaker 4: So I do love the radio. And what I also
Speaker 4: want to know is where can I buy a radio nowadays?
Speaker 2: With any questions?
Speaker 4: Very hard to find.
Speaker 2: That's a great question, my sister. Okay, hold on says.
Speaker 4: Watch the radio.
Speaker 2: Hold on, Jane, hold On, We got your questions. Go ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, I believe you still can buy radios
Speaker 3: at best Buy. I think you can, certainly. You know,
Speaker 3: it's it's not that easy. You can buy them online. Certainly. Amazon,
Speaker 3: uh sells radios online, and so does Walmart online. It's
Speaker 3: not as easy to buy a radio because, uh, people
Speaker 3: do you know, listen a lot through their computers.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 3: The good part about radio nar is you can stream
Speaker 3: it or you can listen, you know, if you have
Speaker 3: a a streaming receiver in your kitchen, like a Google
Speaker 3: device that that plays radio. Yeah, so you you can
Speaker 3: find radio in a lot of different places, and a
Speaker 3: lot of people now if they're outside the car, tend
Speaker 3: to stream it because it's so e to get through
Speaker 3: an app. iHeart has an app with all the radio
Speaker 3: stations as well as all their podcasts, and so they
Speaker 3: make it easy for you to listen as well. So
Speaker 3: radio is pretty ubiquitous now.
Speaker 2: Is BO still Is BO still in business?
Speaker 3: Bose is still in business. Yeah, both is a very
Speaker 3: big company and and uh they still make radios.
Speaker 2: So so there's a few ideas, Gene, there's no reason.
Speaker 2: All right, Gene, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: I got packed, Daniel. Let us know if this comes
Speaker 4: up again in Congress.
Speaker 2: Oh you bet you, you bet you. I may be
Speaker 2: over your house knocking on your door, Jean with a petition.
Speaker 2: You never know. We'll talk. So okay, all right, let
Speaker 2: me get one more in here before we got to
Speaker 2: go to break. We're going to go to Lola in
Speaker 2: San Diego. Lola, you are on with Bruce. Going right ahead, Lola, Gruth.
Speaker 6: I'm going to give you my experience driving driving with
Speaker 6: the internet streaming through my tablets. There's no there's no towers.
Speaker 6: There's no towers. So now, so I love conspiracy theory,
Speaker 6: and this isn't a conspiracy theory, this is facts. No
Speaker 6: am radio, you can't hear what's going on, so they
Speaker 6: need to stay in the car. So the second next
Speaker 6: thing is to buy a portable radio that you can
Speaker 6: keep with you because I'm in traffic. I'm not even
Speaker 6: that fire, but it's between towers and the streaming drops
Speaker 6: and it makes me upset. Now I'm in the car,
Speaker 6: and you know everybody else is upset too.
Speaker 8: Because they're all streaming this.
Speaker 2: No, this is not with you, little I'm not laughing
Speaker 2: at you. I'm laughing with you. And it's absolutely true
Speaker 2: what you're saying.
Speaker 6: So, you know, has good things, but it's got a
Speaker 6: lot of bad things, and people don't see that. They
Speaker 6: really don't.
Speaker 3: Well, am is am is an important medium that needs
Speaker 3: to stay in the car and I agree with you,
Speaker 3: and and radio is still a very vibrant medium and
Speaker 3: it needs to be supported. So you know, all this
Speaker 3: benefit from all the good programming. I mean it's free, right,
Speaker 3: you know, in today's world when things costs are getting
Speaker 3: higher and higher, certainly that's one of the few free
Speaker 3: mediums still out there that you can get supported by advertisers.
Speaker 3: And so it's an important part of the community and
Speaker 3: it needs to stay where it is.
Speaker 6: And NPR. Trump just cut all the funding for public radio, like.
Speaker 3: Well, it's the reality is public radio only gets two
Speaker 3: percent of its funding from the federal government.
Speaker 6: So it's not you know what two percent. I like
Speaker 6: the two percent.
Speaker 9: Send it to me.
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll try to work on that. Rolla lola, I
Speaker 2: get you in here the break man.
Speaker 6: I know what your strategy, Dan, I'd be talking all night.
Speaker 2: Thanks Lola, You'll be well. Okay, I guarantee you whether
Speaker 2: it's better in San Diego right now that it is
Speaker 2: in Boston. Okay.
Speaker 6: Thanks, Yes for one day, we had a lot of
Speaker 6: rain and clouds. We take great rain.
Speaker 2: Nothing but thanks Lola. Have a great weekend.
Speaker 6: Droughtsover now the droughts sob good, have a great have
Speaker 6: a great weekend. Right, Happy Mother's Day weekend, Thank you
Speaker 6: every Mother's Day.
Speaker 2: A good night. Okay, we'll take a break, Bruce, let's
Speaker 2: keep rolling here. We got I'm sure more calls and
Speaker 2: we got a few more minutes. And I really appreciate, Bruce,
Speaker 2: you're taking the time tonight because I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that the that NPR was just two percent.
Speaker 3: I forget about it's only two percent. You know, it's
Speaker 3: you know, I'll tell you one thing before the break.
Speaker 3: You know, I was on I was on one of
Speaker 3: the boards at PBS locally, and you know I used
Speaker 3: to go in their newsroom and say to myself, they
Speaker 3: had more equipment, Oh yeah in their newsroom than I
Speaker 3: had in my thirty four radio stations.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, also, I can tell you that a lot
Speaker 2: of the folks who are on air on PBS are
Speaker 2: killing it financially. I mean, oh yeah, you know, and
Speaker 2: if you look at some of those salaries, it's unbelievable,
Speaker 2: absolutely unbelievable.
Speaker 3: And none of it not BZ nor My company can run,
Speaker 3: has to run much more leaned in order to stay profitable.
Speaker 3: They don't.
Speaker 2: You got it, you got it. We'll take a quick
Speaker 2: break back with Bruce Mittman. More phone calls. I got
Speaker 2: Darryln and New Brunswick, Michael and Boston, and if you
Speaker 2: want to try, I'm trying to get another one or
Speaker 2: two more in, but then that will be it. We'll
Speaker 2: be back and this is we should do this more often.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Nightside right after.
Speaker 1: This Night Side with Dan Ray, Boston News Radio. Night
Speaker 1: Side with Dan Ray on WBS, Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, let's try to get everybody in here. Let
Speaker 2: me start it off with Darryl in New Brunswick, New Hampshire,
Speaker 2: once again our international broadcast. Daryl, you are with Bruce Mittman.
Speaker 2: What's your question of comment? Darryl?
Speaker 9: Hey, Dan, Bruce, Darryl from New Brunswick, Canada. Welcome and
Speaker 9: welcome this might be relevance to AM radio. You guys
Speaker 9: have the signal, right, and you guys have long reaches, right,
Speaker 9: we do it. And the benefit being reference to the automobile.
Speaker 9: Even people are asking where they can get radios. Just
Speaker 9: go to home depot or whatever stores you have and
Speaker 9: buy construction radio and you can pick it up for miles.
Speaker 2: All right. Well that's good to know, Darryl, and hopefully
Speaker 2: Gene is still listening. Okay.
Speaker 9: Well, it also goes back to if you guys have
Speaker 9: incidents where your disasters and whatnot, it also keeps the
Speaker 9: truck drivers involved and they can listen and whatnot. Even
Speaker 9: homeless people, they can stay in touch with what's going on.
Speaker 9: And the main benefit is you guys allowed the conversation
Speaker 9: with the people as opposed to other media.
Speaker 2: Right, you got it. You got it, Darrell, I got
Speaker 2: pack lines. So I'm gonna let you run. Have a
Speaker 2: great weekend. Stay warm up there in New Brunswick. Summer
Speaker 2: is coming. Don't worry.
Speaker 9: Hey, it's only going down to zero tonight.
Speaker 2: How about that? Yeah, well your zero's thirty two, so
Speaker 2: it's not quite what our zero is. Thanks, thanks, Darrel,
Speaker 2: I'll talk to you later. By vine. Let's keep rolling.
Speaker 2: Here're gonna go to Michael in Boston. Michael, you next
Speaker 2: time nights. I want to get you in a couple
Speaker 2: more in Go ahead, Michael.
Speaker 7: Yes, let's get to the meet here. The meaty questions,
Speaker 7: what mister Mittman on your programming throughout the number of
Speaker 7: radio stations that you have, is the programming standard format
Speaker 7: that you use or do you study the demographics and
Speaker 7: the competition before you program to that market.
Speaker 3: That's a good question. So yes, demographics play a big
Speaker 3: role in how you program. Lifestyle plays a big role.
Speaker 3: You know, in the South, country is is a is
Speaker 3: a very strong format. Country music, political conversation, conservative political
Speaker 3: conversation in the South is an important part of the lifestyle.
Speaker 3: And so all those issues come to play up north,
Speaker 3: you know. And I was in Florida. We were playing
Speaker 3: much more sort of ac meaning more pop music, contemporary music,
Speaker 3: softer sounds for people on the beaches, because that's what
Speaker 3: they needed. So every market gets served based on its population.
Speaker 3: It's demographics and it's lifestyle.
Speaker 7: Okay, thank you. I had one more comment real quick
Speaker 7: on a small radio station. I've worked for a lot
Speaker 7: of them that had no agency business at all nothing
Speaker 7: because they have no ratings, they have nothing to sell,
Speaker 7: so all of the business was direct. Am I still
Speaker 7: right on that. When you have a small market radio station,
Speaker 7: everything is dependent on the strength of your sales force.
Speaker 3: Well, yes, predominantly your preponderance of sales probably eighty sorry
Speaker 3: say ninety percent is going to be direct, you know,
Speaker 3: or eighty percent will be direct, and then maybe another
Speaker 3: ten percent might be agencies, and then maybe ten might
Speaker 3: be national. And in these days ten is you and
Speaker 3: high on the national side. So you do have some
Speaker 3: agency business, but predominantly you're you're calling on on businesses direct.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, that's what Michael, it is, Michael, great questions,
Speaker 2: great questions. I had a roll here because they got
Speaker 2: to get a couple more in.
Speaker 7: Okay, thank you, Michael, listen, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2: H You're welcome. Thank you. Let me go to Andrew
Speaker 2: and Hyde Park Andrew, you are next on nice side
Speaker 2: with Bruce Mitt mcgaret.
Speaker 8: Heead Andrew, Hi, Dan, Hi, Bruce, thank you for for
Speaker 8: my call. I've been a radio listener since I was
Speaker 8: a kid, and my parents will put me to bed
Speaker 8: and it would either.
Speaker 2: Be a joke.
Speaker 8: Signey owned or David Brudnoy uh, who are supposed to
Speaker 8: be putting me to sleep, but I would be up
Speaker 8: until one am listening regardless. But thank you both for
Speaker 8: your continued contributions. My question is with podcasting, uh, you know,
Speaker 8: really really taking off of the past, you know, decade
Speaker 8: or so, how does the AM radio stay ahead of
Speaker 8: the curve moving forward?
Speaker 3: Well, I think am radio that's a good question, by
Speaker 3: the way, And you know a lot of shows like
Speaker 3: this show for example, I think I believe it will
Speaker 3: be in a podcast tomorrow. So you can use a
Speaker 3: podcasts to sort of echo your show. You can use
Speaker 3: podcasts to extend your personalities, so a Dan can do
Speaker 3: his own podcast, so he can use the show to
Speaker 3: drive listening and then get much deeper into a conversation
Speaker 3: with some of his guests. And a podcast So podcasts
Speaker 3: and AM still work together. It's about how you use
Speaker 3: the medium and how creative you want to be. There's
Speaker 3: no limits, there's no rules, and I think the more
Speaker 3: you expand your thinking and try new options, you'll find
Speaker 3: you can be successful. So I think radio will continue
Speaker 3: in its frame. News talk on the am will still
Speaker 3: be live talk, interactive talk, I think is the strength
Speaker 3: of AM and certainly ethnic programming because it's there's a
Speaker 3: lot of it's an opportunity for a lot of people
Speaker 3: to access it that don't have any other place to go,
Speaker 3: and there are a lot of AM signals. So it
Speaker 3: still contributes to the well being of the community, the listening,
Speaker 3: the interest, and the creativity of the community. So I
Speaker 3: think radio has a future and it'll continue to have.
Speaker 2: One gentlemen on that very positive point right here and
Speaker 2: our thanks Andrew. It is a great question. Keep listening
Speaker 2: to Night Side, okay, and train your children as well,
Speaker 2: Thanks Andrew. To the callers in the line, I apologize
Speaker 2: this was a great hour. Bruce Mitt mean, thank you
Speaker 2: very much.
Speaker 3: Thanks thanks for having me us. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Dan, it was a lot of fun, pous, great fun,
Speaker 2: and we'll do it. Was good radio and we'll do
Speaker 2: it again